Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Boy Was My Face Rojo...

"The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass. If the case be otherwise, I beg his pardon and extend to him the cordial hand of fellowship and call him brother." - Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad

If you have not yet reached the status Mr. Twain describes above, then you will - or you aren't really trying. I'd be interested to hear your humorous anecdote of a harmless faux pas, misstep, or slip-up that reveals the need for continual growth in our cultural understanding.

Why not just post your story below as a comment to this blog post? Feel free to link to your blog for more info, photos, etc. Sure, we may laugh at you, but in a most sympathetic way, because we've been there, are there, or will be there soon.

I was watching a movie with my Spanish friends and the lights were all off. A guy I'd never met came in and I was introduced... he came towards me ... i stuck out my hand for a handshake... but then he was too close for a handshake so I went for the awkward half-hug... Turns out he was going for the European kiss on the cheek, which i've heard about but haven't seen since i've been here. It was really awkward!!

But there was a strange man coming at me in the dark! I didn't even have depth perception on my side, much less intercultural savoir faire!

Let's see...I overtly pride myself on speaking Spanish better than the average bear, however, my Spanish-speaking-skills-on-the-fly need a bit of work. It's happened more than once that I've address people as objects and objects as a people. It's embarrassing when I realize what I ACTUALLY said 15 minutes later...

Emotionally, I run a tight ship. Due to years of practice, I can hold back or mask my opinions except when you mess with my food.

About a week or so ago, I was going for the total cultural immersion and chose to go to Food, Inc. - I was totally disturbed to the point of obsession. I approached the host of the show and demanded to know the next step. I realized just how nutty, I was being...Imagine doing something about something that took decades to foul up? How narcissistic can I be?

About Me

Randy D. Nichols is a life-long learner and communicator who now learns alongside college students as they engage the ever-shifting literacies of our modern digital world. He has a passion for engaging communication issues with fellow-communicators in the workplace, community, and the classroom.

His creative approach to forging communication solutions out of available (or easily obtainable) resources is part of what makes him the "McGyver of Communications." He enjoys bringing a "rhetorical imagineering" to his courses, seminars and speeches - and is happy when his ideas are adopted, modified, augmented, re-mixed and shared with others. (He wears his Creative Commons T-shirt with pride!) Dr. Nichols shares a multitude of curated resources with educators and communicators at his RhetoricSoup.com website. Randy D. Nichols, Chair of
Limestone’s Dept. of Communications, is featured in the new book, Mobile
Technologies and the Writing Classroom. Nichols worked with fellow Clemson
Doctoral Alumna, Dr. Josephine Walwema, to contribute a chapter titled
"Untangling the Web through Digital Aggregation and Curation" to this
new NCTE publication. This chapter outlines an approach to encouraging students
toward a more "critical consumption" of digital resources by using
free and popular tools for mobile devices, such as Flipboard and Pinterest, and
even includes a sample lesson as a "play exemplar" for fellow
educators to revise, rework, subvert and remediate.

Dr. Nichols is energized by communicating, not only inside the college classroom, but outside as well. He enjoys speaking to emerging young scholars at events such as the Olde English Consortium and the SC Teacher Cadets events. He also values his opportunities to speak at, and learn from, events such as the Popular Culture Association Conferences, and the Conference on College Communication and Composition.